The ladderized capacity-building program aims to enable smallholder farmers to tap the Internet and different mobile technologies to improve their livelihood.

The module is particularly useful for 76-year-old Plaquino Ceñal whose family also manufactures chocolate products derived from their cacao plantation in Tagum City, Davao del Norte.

“Through digital platforms, we can sell our products directly to consumers without the need for physical stores. This ensures access to the market even in the time of the pandemic when people movement is regulated,” said Ceñal.

After the successful rollout of the DFP 101 basic course that benefited more than 1,500 individuals since 2019, Orlino noted farmers are now expanding income opportunities by applying skills developed from DFP 102, an intermediate course that makes use of more sophisticated digital farming tools and skills.

Launched in the third quarter of 2021, DFP 102 Master Trainer’s Bootcamp for DA-ATI’s 15 Regional Training Centers aims to conduct 50 more sessions for the rest of the year.

The program was complemented by the “Buy Local” program to help small-scale farmers help recover from the pandemic and increase their incomes.

Under the program, the company connects smallholder farmers to consumers, who are primarily the employees and families of the MVP Group of Companies employees, and are provided access to low-cost capital for their planting requirements.

Buy Local, according to Orlino, was also included in relief aid and provided to Taal volcano-affected residents in Batangas, quarantine-affected communities in Metro Manila and Cavite, typhoon-hit areas in Laguna and Quezon. The program also raised almost P500,000 through the Rice Aid Initiative of the Philippine Business for Social Progress.

In the third quarter of 2021, Orlino said, the program generated gross sales of more than P18 million for farmers in Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pangasinan, and Isabela. During the birthday celebration of MVP Group of Companies chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan, Smart turned over P100,000 as capital to farmer-beneficiaries in Floridablanca, Pampanga to buy farm inputs for the wet season planting cycle.

In 2021, Orlino said, Smart’s Buy Local program generated gross sales of P8 million for 42,260 farmers and raised P300,000 for sustainability funds as capital support for 72 farmers.

Further, Orlino pointed out that Buy Local enabled vegetable farmers facing a challenge of oversupply to sell their surplus to employees and companies and provided additional income opportunities to cacao farmers and marginalized groups such as the Aeta community from Zambales and women’s seamstress group in Quezon City.

“With the use of Agri apps discussed in the course, I can stop pests like stem borers and black bugs from wreaking havoc on our crops. This has resulted in better yields for us, even doubling our harvest,” said Geomar Avila, a 21-year-old college student who still finds time to tend to their farm in San Agustin, Agusan del Sur.

The course trains farmers in using the SPIDTECH application developed by Smarter Approaches to Reinvigorate Agriculture as an Industry in the Philippines (Project SARAI). Using the phone’s built-in camera, farmers can identify, manage, report and monitor pests and diseases of major Philippine crops.

Boosting this capability is another application developed by East-West Seed Philippines called “Plant Doctor Online” that also helps identify and manage plant diseases.

Smart actively pushes for the use of digital technologies to improve the lives and livelihood of farmers and usher them into the digital economy. These efforts underscore the telco’s commitment to support the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), particularly SDG 1: No Poverty, and SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth.